Gibson takes over for Shinseki at the VA — Bergdahl on his way back — Republicans decry release of Taliban prisoners

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IN CASE YOU’VE BEEN LIVING UNDER A ROCK, the two big stories that rocked the defense world over the weekend were the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and the release of American POW Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban fighters.

FIRST, SHINSEKI … “President Barack Obama said Friday that he had reluctantly accepted the resignation of Shinseki, giving in to growing calls from lawmakers and veterans’ advocates that he step down in the wake of widespread reports that VA hospitals falsified waiting lists,” reports POLITICO’s Edward-Isaac Dovere. http://politi.co/1oYD8wM

“‘I want to reiterate: he is a very good man,’ Obama said of Shinseki. However, the president said the decorated retired Army general concluded ‘he could not carry out the next stages of reform without being a distraction … I regret that he has to resign under these circumstances.’”

-- SLOAN GIBSON STEPS UP FOR NOW, reports POLITICO’s Philip Ewing: “The man taking the reins at the embattled Department of Veterans Affairs hasn’t been in the job for very long, but there’s a chance he could remain there until the close of the Obama administration.” http://politi.co/1n1GgHj

What’s Gibson’s background? He’s “a West Point graduate and served as a Ranger-qualified infantry officer, the son and grandson of service members,” reports Ewing. He “also spent productive years running the United Service Organizations — the USO that sends musicians and comedians overseas to entertain the troops — before he was nominated to join the VA.”

-- AND IF OBAMA DECIDES TO FIND A PERMANENT REPLACEMENT? It’s way too soon to say who, but commentators “have thrown around the names of some retired generals, including Stanley McChrystal — the former Afghanistan commander who the White House asked to head a military outreach panel — and James Mattis, the outspoken former Central Command boss who retired as a near-legend in the Marine Corps. Another possibility is Peter Chiarelli, a former Army vice chief who focused heavily on troop mental health and suicide.”

-- For the most part, politicians agreed that Shinseki’s resignation was the right move, even though the act itself would do little to solve the VA’s problems. POLITICO: http://politi.co/1nGmPHD

-- In an op-ed, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) says some of the blame for the VA”s problems rests with Obama, who promised reform. POLITICO Magazine: http://politi.co/1oLvlov

-- Phillip Carter, an Iraq veteran now with the Center for a New American Security, offers six ways to begin fixing the VA. Slate: http://slate.me/1kgyTNq

-- Sen. Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, prepares to introduce a revamped bill this week aimed at fixing the long delays for veterans' care. AP: http://1.usa.gov/1pLc8Au

AND IN CASE YOU MISSED IT — HERE’S FRIDAY’S MUST-READ ON THE VA’s CULTURE OF COVER-UPS from The Washington Post’s David A. Fahrenthold: “Somewhere underneath Shinseki — among the undersecretaries and deputy undersecretaries and bosses and sub-bosses — the fact that clerks were cheating the system was lost.” http://wapo.st/1jBsC92

“Bergdahl had been held captive by the Taliban for nearly five years. His freedom — which capped a week marked by announcements about the end of American involvement in Afghanistan — was negotiated on the condition of the release of five Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay who have been sent to Qatar.”

IT’S A LONG ROAD HOME FOR BERGDAHL, reports The New York Times’ Mark Landler: “‘Bowe’s been gone so long that it’s going to be so difficult to come back,’ said his father, Robert Bergdahl, at a news conference in Idaho. He likened it to a deep-sea diver decompressing before returning to the surface. ‘If he comes up too fast,’ he said, ‘it could kill him.’” http://nyti.ms/1kxnQi7

-- REACTION FROM HAGEL AND DEMPSEY: “The United States government never forgot Sgt. Bergdahl, nor did we stop working to bring him back,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a statement. http://1.usa.gov/1ktYuwB

And from Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey: “It is our ethos that we never leave a fallen comrade. Today we have back in our ranks the only remaining captured soldier from our conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Welcome home Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.”

-- THE CRITICS POUNCE: Obama’s detractors on Capitol Hill are making clear they’re glad the missing soldier is finally returning home. But they’re not happy with the way in which Bergdahl’s release was secured.

“Trading five senior Taliban leaders from detention in Guantanamo Bay for Bergdahl's release may have consequences for the rest of our forces and all Americans,” Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) and Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said in a statement. http://1.usa.gov/1m4eruR

And they were not the only ones with concerns.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) told CNN’s “State of the Union” that the U.S. has “now set a price” for U.S. soldiers. POLITICO: http://politi.co/1kgtZQu

-- McCain said he’s concerned the freed Taliban prisoners could “re-enter the fight” after being held in Qatar for only one year under the deal’s terms. POLITICO: http://politi.co/T5bdA9

FOR SOME, BERGDAHL'S RETURN STIRS UP OLD FEELINGS OF RESENTMENT, report The Washington Post’s Dan Lamothe and Kevin Sieff: “Bergdahl, 28, is believed to have slipped away from his platoon’s small outpost in Afghanistan’s Paktika province on June 30, 2009, after growing disillusioned with the U.S. military’s war effort. He was captured shortly afterward by enemy forces and held captive in Pakistan by insurgents affiliated with the Taliban. At the time, an entire U.S. military division and thousands of Afghan soldiers and police devoted weeks to searching for him, and some soldiers resented risking their lives for someone they considered a deserter.” http://wapo.st/1tALDOx

MORE ON BERGDAHL’S RELEASE:

-- National Security Adviser Susan Rice defended the swap, saying it wouldn’t lead to more kidnappings of American soldiers. POLITICO: http://politi.co/1nGqIfL

-- Hagel also said he stood by the decision, telling NBC's “Meet the Press” there were fears that Bergdahl’s health could be rapidly deteriorating. POLITICO: http://politi.co/T52X3a

-- Rice says Bergdahl’s declining health contributed to the decision not to notify Congress before making the prisoner swap. POLITICO: http://politi.co/1hq7gBe

-- Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) says Bergdahl was not a hostage but a POW, and there are many precedents for prisoner swaps in U.S. history. POLITICO: http://politi.co/1pKpZXV

HAGEL LOVES A REVIEW, reports POLITICO’s Philip Ewing: “Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s go-to weapon system is not found on any base, in any hangar or aboard any ship. It’s a review.

“If he gets word of problems with the Defense Department’s health system, it’s under review. If he wants to change the composition of the world’s mightiest military force, there’s a review. If he needs to determine how a black woman soldier may wear her hair, that takes a review. And they better be ‘comprehensive,’ going from ‘soup to nuts.’ They had better solicit input from all the “key stakeholders.” http://politico.pro/1kx6vWy

A LOOK AT PALANTIR, ONE OF THE ‘MOST VALUABLE PRIVATE TECH COMPANIES,’ via The New York Times’ Quentin Hardy: Since its founding in 2004, Palantir has been incredibly successful at making software that “consumes huge amounts of data — from local rainfall totals to bank transactions — mashes it together and makes conclusions based on those unlikely combinations.”

The company’s won contracts with U.S. intelligence agencies as well as the military, and its feud with the Army over the Distributed Common Ground System is well known.

While its investors are “salivating for a big payday from an initial public offering,” the company’s co-founder and chief executive, Alex Karp, says taking the company public could “destroy Palantir’s mission: to use its software to improve the world.” http://nyti.ms/1nVwwiV

SPEED READ

-- The U.S. is signaling it might have to extend the Iran nuclear talks to the fall if a final deal is not reached by July 20. Al Monitor: http://goo.gl/jWzFb6

-- Intelligence officials are confused about whether new restrictions prohibit any communication with the press. Foreign Policy: http://atfp.co/1oMFfWJ

-- Diversifying its business into IT services helped keep one Navy contractor afloat through sequestration. The Washington Post: http://wapo.st/1pz4Y5c

-- Things got testy with Japan, China and the U.S. at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. Reuters: http://reut.rs/1u7D5ki

-- With 799 people killed in May, Iraq reached its highest monthly death toll so far this year. AP: http://nyti.ms/SnWnUO

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